Enfield’s Meridian Water: from market failure to council control

The London borough of Enfield’s £6bn Meridian Water regeneration project puts the local council back in control, creating jobs and correcting market failures as Jamie Hailstone reports.

Enfield council is working with developers Barratt London and Segro to transform an area of 210 acres, which takes in a number of former gasworks sites along the Upper Lea Valley at Edmonton, making it one of the most ambitious regeneration schemes in the country.

And as the London borough’s cabinet member for economic regeneration and business Alan Sitkin explains, job creation is one of the key principles behind the Meridian Water project.

‘It would be positively unethical to regenerate a corner of one of the most deprived neighbourhoods in London and not expect the improvements to benefit local residents as far as possible,’ adds Sitkin. ‘It’s the right thing to do.’

A new mindset for Enfield residents
As part of the project the council has said the new development will provide 10,000 jobs during its construction phase and 6,700 permanent jobs by the time when the 20-year project is complete.

The council also plans to launch a Built Environment Training Centre with Barratt London to provide traineeships and apprenticeships to help more than 5,000 local people gain the skills needed during the construction period and beyond.

‘The idea is to try and create a new mindset for Enfield residents,’ explains Sitkin.

‘The whole point is to try and achieve something that no one has achieved in the last 20 years, which is to get people interested in high-value added manual professions.’

Last month, the council launched a new website – Build Enfield – and social media campaign using the hastag #buildenfield, both designed to help residents make the most of the opportunities available through the construction phase of Meridian Water.

The website contains details of jobs available, training courses and reasons why residents should consider a career in the construction industry.

It also contains details of ‘Construct With Us’ events, which aims to give students an opportunity to find out about jobs in the sector.

One of the council’s recent success stories is Alpha Nkaya, a local man living in the east of the borough who attended a Construct With Us event earlier this year and is now employed by building firm Mulalley on the Lytchett Estate regeneration project.

‘Build Enfield is one of the most innovative campaigns this council has launched in recent years, as it will foster a generation of workers who will literally build, regenerate and sustain our borough,’ adds Sitkin.

‘We believe Build Enfield can deliver a local solution to a national problem, namely to bring our skilled and enthusiastic workforce to the construction industry, so they can take advantage of the many work opportunities in the borough and further afield.’

Creating a haven for makers and creators
But the council is not just thinking about construction jobs. Meridian Water will also create permanent jobs in the pharmaceuticals, digital and e-commerce sectors.

The site will also be home to Meridian Works, a haven for makers and creators.

Meridian Works will be a series of places and spaces tailored specifically towards small businesses, start-ups and freelancers in a major boost to the ‘maker’ economy of London.

The first phase of this will be the creation of Europe’s largest open workshop for the social enterprise start up Building Bloqs and the ACAVA (Association for Cultural Advancement through Visual Art), which will support 300 jobs and open in early 2018.

Council takes direct control of the scheme
Construction work on the first Meridian Water site to come forward, Willoughby Lane, is due to start next year, once a detailed application has been submitted by Barratt London.

The Willoughby Lane area will deliver 725 new homes, alongside new open spaces, shops and community facilities.

The area will also have its own brand new railway station, which has already been delivered by Network Rail.

And significantly the council also now owns two-thirds of all the developable area. The most recent acquisition being the purchase of the 32 acre Stonehill Estate, which means the London borough now owns a total of 87 acres across Meridian Water.

‘Enfield council is continuing to take direct control of this significant regeneration at Meridian Water, buying up the land, overseeing the infrastructure investment and taking an active lead in its delivery,’ says council leader, Doug Taylor.

Sitkin says it is ‘hugely important’ for councils to take the lead in long-term regeneration projects such as Meridian Water.

‘There is a very grave risk that if local authorities do not do this, you will end up with bad spatial imbalances, where certain areas develop and get more and more affluent, and others just get neglected.

‘If you are born in a part of town where all the businesses are congregating, life is great. But if you are in a part of town, which they neglect for their own reasons, then you have a big problem.

‘It’s what the academics call market failure,’ he adds. ‘When the market works it creates wealth for everyone, when it doesn’t you need to step in. That area of Enfield was getting poorer and poor.

‘If you have an overview, you can take fundamental investments that enable other investments. That’s the big view that the council can take, whereas a private developer may be thinking from a short-term, phase-by-phase basis.’